After efforts to persuade Washington state government officials to provide $220 million in public funding to update KeyArena failed, the SuperSonics' ownership group, led by Howard Schultz, sold the team to the Professional Basketball Club LLC (PBC), an investment group headed by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett. A condition of the sale was that PBC execute a "good faith effort" to secure a suitable arena in the Seattle area for the team. After failing to persuade local governments to pay for a new $500 million arena complex, Bennett's group notified the NBA that it intended to move the team to Oklahoma City and requested arbitration with the city of Seattle to be released from its lease with KeyArena. When the request was rejected by a judge, Seattle sued Bennett's group to enforce the lease that required the team to play in KeyArena through 2010. On July 2, 2008, a settlement was reached that allowed the team to move under certain conditions.

In months prior to the settlement, Seattle publicly released email conversations that took place within Bennett's ownership group alleging they indicated that some members of the group had a desire to move the team to Oklahoma City prior to its purchase in 2006. The city used these conversations to argue that ownership failed to negotiate in good faith and as a result, Schultz filed a lawsuit seeking to rescind the sale of the team and transfer the ownership to a court-appointed receiver. The NBA claimed the lawsuit was void because Schultz signed a release forbidding himself to sue Bennett's group but also argued that the proposal would have violated league ownership rules. Schultz dropped the case before the start of the 2008–09 NBA season.

On February 12, 2007, Bennett proposed using tax money to pay for a new $500 million arena in Renton, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.[5][12] After failing to reach a deal by the end of the legislative session, Bennett gave up his attempt in April 2007.[13] On November 2, 2007 the team announced it would move to Oklahoma City as soon as it could get out of its Key Arena lease.[14] Seattle's mayor, Greg Nickels, maintained a stance that the Sonics were expected to stay in Seattle until their lease expired in 2010 and said the city did not intend to make it easy for Bennett to move the team early. Over concerns the city would accept a buyout of the lease, a grassroots group filed a citywide initiative that sought to prevent the city from accepting such an offer from Bennett's group.[15] The Seattle City Council later unanimously passed an ordinance modeled after the initiative.[16]

On August 13, 2007, Aubrey McClendon, a minor partner of Bennett's ownership group, said in an interview with The Journal Record (an Oklahoma City newspaper) that the team was not purchased to keep it in Seattle but to relocate it to Oklahoma City. Bennett later denied such intentions, saying McClendon "was not speaking on behalf of the ownership group". Due to his comments, McClendon was fined $250,000 by the NBA.[17]

On September 21, 2007, Bennett applied for arbitration on the issue of whether the team could break its lease in 2008.[18] Arguing that the lease does not allow for arbitration on the issue of occupancy, the city of Seattle filed for declaratory relief on September 24. The motion asked the King County Superior court to reject the arbitration request and enforce the Specific Performance Clause of the Sonics' lease, which required the team to play at KeyArena through 2010. United States District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez denied the request for arbitration on October 29, saying that the "arguments ignore the clear language of Article II, which states that PBC’s use and occupancy rights with respect to the Premises and the Term of this Agreement shall end on September 30, 2010.”[19]

KeyArena, rebuilt in 1995, was the smallest venue in the NBA at the time of the Sonics' move, seating 17,072 for basketball.[2][4][5]

Two days after Bennett's October 31, 2007 deadline passed for public financing of a new arena, he informed NBA commissionerDavid Stern that the ownership group intended to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City as soon as it was legally possible. The timing of the announcement, one day after the Sonics' home opener, drew critical comments from Tom Carr, Seattle's attorney, who said "Mr. Bennett's announcement today is a transparent attempt to alienate the Seattle fan base and follow through on his plan to move the team to Oklahoma City ... Making this move now continues the current ownership's insulting behavior toward the Sonics' dedicated fans and the citizens of the city."[20] Bennett also reiterated that the team was not for sale and dismissed attempts by local groups to repurchase the team.[14]

On February 15, 2008, the Sonics' ownership group gave the city of Seattle a one-day deadline to accept a $26.5 million offer that would buy out the Sonics' lease in KeyArena and pay off what the ownership group claimed was the value of debts on the arena.[21] The city rejected the offer.[citation needed]

The prospect of expanding KeyArena resurfaced on March 6, 2008, when Microsoft CEO at that time Steve Ballmer, promised that his investor group would pay half of the $300 million needed for an extensive renovation; the rest was to be provided by the city and county.[22] However, when the state legislature did not give approval for the county to provide funds by an April 10 deadline, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said that the effort had failed and the city's hopes rested in its lawsuit.[23]

Chesapeake Energy Arena (then known as the Ford Center), which seats 18,203 for basketball, was completed in 2002, and has received public funding for renovation.

In anticipation of an NBA team, and led by Mayor Mick Cornett, who had successfully lobbied for the previous temporary relocation of the New Orleans Hornets to Oklahoma City, the voters of that city approved a $120 million renovation of the Ford Center on March 3, 2008, including construction of a new NBA practice facility.[24][25] After a tour of downtown Oklahoma City, a subcommittee of three NBA owners recommended that the league approve the move.[26] On March 14, Bennett reached a preliminary agreement with Oklahoma City on a 15-year lease of the Ford Center that was finalized by the Oklahoma City Council and the Sonics’ ownership group two weeks later.[27][28][29] The Oklahoma State Legislature later approved a bill to provide tax breaks and other incentives if the team relocated.[30]

NBA owners gave approval of a potential SuperSonics' relocation to Oklahoma City on April 18 in a 28–2 vote by the league's Board of Governors; only Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks and Paul Allen of the Portland Trail Blazers voted against the move. The approval meant the Sonics would be allowed to move to Oklahoma City's Ford Center for the 2008–2009 season after reaching a settlement with the city of Seattle.[31][32]

In 2006, a group of Seattle residents created Save Our Sonics and Storm ("SOS") to rally support for a permanent professional basketball presence in Seattle. The "and Storm" portion of the name was dropped when the WNBA Storm was sold to local ownership. On June 16, 2008, the group organized a well-publicized rally, which reportedly drew over 3,000 participants, at the U.S. District Courthouse in Seattle to protest the proposed relocation of the team.[33] The rally was held on the first day of the city of Seattle's lawsuit against the PBC to enforce the remaining two years on the KeyArena lease.

Seattle filed a lawsuit on September 23, 2007 in an attempt to keep the Sonics from leaving before the end of their lease in 2010.[34] The trial was set for June 16, 2008.[23] On April 10, 2008, Seattle asked the Federal District Court to order the NBA to release documents related to the financial situation of each team, the claim that the SuperSonics' lease with KeyArena was financially unworkable, and the league's involvement in requiring PBC to make a good-faith effort to stay in Seattle. On April 28, the trial's presiding judge, Loretta Preska, ruled that the NBA must supply the internal documents about the possible relocation of the Sonics that the city of Seattle had requested. In addition, the judge said that Stern could be deposed at a later day should the need arise.[35] The city hoped the documents would aid in building its legal case, and cited an email conversation among members of the ownership group that suggested they were privately discussing intent to move the team while publicly insisting that they would not attempt to do so.[36]

The ownership group filed a motion saying that the lawsuit and the release of the emails by the city were meant to drive up the cost of leaving Seattle and force the ownership group to sell the team. The motion requested that all emails and other records be released to the team. Slade Gorton, lead attorney for the city, responded by pointing out that it was PBC that started the fight that led to the lawsuit when they filed for arbitration to break the lease.[37][38] The motion was denied by the presiding judge, who said the team failed to make a "good-faith effort" to resolve the dispute and that it failed to show that trial preparations were hindered by the records not being made public. However, the ruling also said the team could bring up the issue again if it could prove the relevance or the confidentiality of the records.[39]

On April 21, 2008, Gorton said he would be open to a settlement if the league promised a replacement team for Seattle. He said it was "highly unlikely" that the Sonics would stay and indicated the city should instead focus on gaining a replacement team, but noted that local governments would need to be willing to fund an expansion of KeyArena first.[40]

When Bennett's group requested that the trial also decide the team's financial obligations to KeyArena should its lease be broken, Seattle's lawyers requested a six-month delay in the trial date in order to prepare for the additional issues, arguing that the ownership group's request would "dramatically change the scope" of the case and would require considerable preparation time to determine damages.[41] The trial's presiding judge denied the motion by Bennett's group on March 6, noting that the team would have needed to make the request at the scheduling conference. A second trial would therefore need to have been held to determine the team's financial obligations.[42]

Attorneys made their closing arguments in the city's case on June 26 and Judge Marsha J. Pechman announced that she would issue her ruling on the following Wednesday.[43] On July 2, hours before Judge Pechman was to release her ruling, it was announced that the team and the city had reached a settlement where PBC would pay the city $45 million immediately in exchange for breaking the lease, and an additional $30 million if Seattle was not given a replacement team in five years. According to the conditions of the settlement, the Sonics' name and colors could not be used by the team in Oklahoma City, but could be taken by a future team in Seattle, although no promises for a replacement team were given. The Oklahoma City team would retain the franchise history of the SuperSonics, which could be "shared" with any future NBA team in Seattle.[44][45] The team moved to Oklahoma City immediately and announced it would begin play in the 2008–09 season.[46][47]

Basketball Club of Seattle LLC v. Professional Basketball Club LLC[edit]

The release of email conversations between members of Bennett's group[48] prompted former Sonics' owner Howard Schultz to file a lawsuit that sought to rescind the sale of the team and alleged that Bennett's group used fraud and misrepresentation to purchase the Sonics without making a "good faith best effort" to keep them in Seattle as mandated by the original sales contract.[49] Bennett said the emails were misinterpreted and that he had spent millions of dollars in attempting to keep the team in Seattle.[50]

The lawsuit was filed on April 22, 2008 at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. It sought, among other things, an injunction to prevent the Sonics from being relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City. The suit further requested that the franchise be placed in a constructive trust and no longer in the ownership of PBC.[51] On May 20, 2008, Schultz's attorney added alleged a breach of contract as a third cause of action against Bennett.[9]Chicago-based attorney and ESPN senior writer Lester Munson said that while the remedies Schultz sought were "without precedent in the sports industry", he did believe that both the Schultz case and Seattle's lease case presented "serious problems" for Bennett.[52]

On May 9, 2008, Oklahoma City officials declared intent to sue for damages and a forced relocation of the SuperSonics if Schultz's lawsuit succeeded and the subsequent ownership did not relocate. In a legal letter to Schultz, Oklahoma City's attorney said that the Sonics were legally bound to relocate to Oklahoma City at the end of the KeyArena lease regardless of who owned the team. The letter stated that the city had "valid and enforceable agreements with the Team requiring it relocate to Oklahoma City at the end of the current lease with the city of Seattle."[25] Schultz's attorney replied to the letter saying the lease agreement was with PBC, not BCOS, and that the city began improvements on Ford Center at their own risk prior to conclusion of the pending litigation.[53]

The NBA filed a motion to intervene with Seattle's federal court on July 9, 2008, claiming that Schultz's lawsuit would interfere with the stable operation of the franchise and the transfer of ownership would violate NBA regulations unless the team was put under control of NBA Commissioner David Stern. The league also claimed that Schultz signed a release forbidding him to sue Bennett's ownership group as a condition of the NBA's approval of the original sale.[54] Weeks later, Schultz requested that two separate trials be used to determine whether Bennett's group committed fraud and subsequently determine a remedy. On August 29, 2008, shortly after the court denied his request and ruled that the NBA could intervene in the case, Schultz said his legal team no longer believed the case could be won. He announced he would drop the lawsuit, saying in a prepared statement, "The prevailing wisdom of many in the Seattle community and the advice of key members of the BCOS is that Seattle's best chance for a professional basketball franchise is to end this litigation and allow the City, State Legislature and other parties to begin the necessary fence mending with the NBA."[55][56]

According to the terms detailed in the settlement agreement, items associated with the SuperSonics' history in Seattle, including trophies, banners, and retired jerseys, stayed in the city and were placed in the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI). Other items such as televisions, radios, headphones, CDs, chairs, and equipment were shipped to Oklahoma City after the Seattle Storm finished the 2008 WNBA season.[57]

^Aldridge, David (December 13, 2010). "Two years later, pain of losing Sonics still stings Seattle". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Retrieved March 28, 2016. The history, actually, is in Oklahoma City. As part of the settlement between the team and the city, a 'shared history' arrangement was created. All of the old Sonics' records are now the Thunder's. The championship banners, retired jerseys and the 1979 NBA championship trophy now reside in Oklahoma City.

1.
KeyArena
–
KeyArena is a multi-purpose arena in Seattle. It is located north of downtown in the 74-acre entertainment complex known as Seattle Center, the site of the 1962 Worlds Fair and it is used for entertainment purposes, such as concerts, ice shows, circuses, and sporting events. It has a capacity of 17,072 for basketball games,15,177 for ice hockey games and ice shows,16,641 for end-stage concerts. Risers hold 7,440 on the level and up to 7,741 on the lower level. The arenas current tenants are the Seattle Redhawks and the Seattle Storm of the WNBA, the Seattle University Redhawks mens basketball team are currently the arenas longest-serving tenant, having played in the arena from 1963 to 1980 and 2009 to present. Rat City Rollergirls of the Womens Flat Track Derby Association have been a tenant since 2009, KeyArena is now the permanent home of the Pac-12 Conferences womens basketball tournament. KeyArena was the home of the NBAs Seattle SuperSonics, WHL Seattle Totems, after 41 seasons in Seattle, the team became the Oklahoma City Thunder and the owners agreed to leave the SuperSonics name, logo, and colors in Seattle for a possible future NBA franchise. The Thunderbirds, who had called the Seattle Center Coliseum and KeyArena home for 32 years, KeyArena was the first publicly financed arena in the area to be fully supported by earned income from the building. The arena opened in 1962 as the Washington State Pavilion for the Century 21 Exposition, after the close of the Exposition the Pavilion was remodeled as the Washington State Coliseum, one of the centerpieces of the new Seattle Center. When the newly renovated Coliseum opened the Seattle University mens basketball became the arenas first major tenant. The Coliseum became home to the Seattle SuperSonics beginning with their season in 1967. The Washington State Coliseum would later be renamed the Seattle Center Coliseum, operated by the City of Seattle, the Seattle Center Coliseum in this incarnation hosted two NBA Finals, in 1978 and 1979, both meetings putting the Washington Bullets and the Seattle SuperSonics against each other. It was also the site of the only NBA game that was canceled on account of rain. On January 6,1986 the Sonics were hosting the Phoenix Suns during a rainstorm, timeouts were called so ball boys armed with towels could do their best to wipe up the puddles, but even so, two players slipped and fell on the wet surface. Finally, during the half, referee Mike Mathis called the game. The arena hosted the competitions of the 1990 Goodwill Games. Additionally, the arena has hosted concerts by famous artists. On August 21,1964 and August 25,1966, The Beatles performed at the arena, a notable performance by Metallica was in 1989, when they were supporting the Damaged Justice Tour

2.
Dallas Mavericks
–
The Dallas Mavericks are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association as a club of the leagues Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its games at the American Airlines Center. According to a 2016 Forbes magazine report, they are the ninth most valuable franchise in the NBA. As of the 2013 season, the Mavericks have sold out 477 consecutive games since December 15,2001, since their inaugural 1980–81 season, the Mavericks have won three division titles, two conference championships, and one NBA Championship. In 1978, Californian businessman Garn Eckardt met Dallas lawyer Doug Adkins, asking for a possible partner, Adkins recommended him one of his clients, Home Interiors and Gifts owner Don Carter. Negotiations with Eckardt fell through, but Carter remained interested in the enterprise as a gift to his wife Linda, who played basketball while at Duncanville High School. At the same time, Buffalo Braves president and general manager Norm Sonju grew an interest in bringing the NBA to Dallas as he studied possible new locations for the ailing franchise. Sonju and Carter tried purchasing both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Kansas City Kings, but disagreement on relocation stalled the negotiations, leading them to instead aim for an expansion team. The league was initially reluctant to expand to Dallas, given Texas had both the Spurs and Houston Rockets, and the 1978–79 NBA season was proving unprofitable and unpopular. Still, during the 1979 NBA All-Star Game weekend, NBA commissioner Larry OBrien announced the league would add two new teams in the 1980–81 season, with teams in Dallas and Minneapolis. Once the Minnesota team backed out, only Dallas remained, and through negotiations with general counselor and future commissioner David Stern, Carter would provide half the amount. James Garner, who played the character, was a member of the ownership group. The University of Texas at Arlington, who uses the Mavericks nickname, had objections about a shared name. They joined the Midwest Division of the Western Conference, where they would stay until the league went to six divisions for the 2004–05 season, Dick Motta, who had guided the Washington Bullets to the NBA Championship in 1977–78, was hired as the teams first head coach. He had a reputation of being a stern disciplinarian, but was also a great teacher of the game. In the Mavericks debut game, taking place in the brand-new Reunion Arena, but the Mavs started the season with a 6–40 record on their way to finishing 15–67. However, the Mavericks did make an acquisition that, while it seemed minor at the time

3.
Seattle
–
Seattle is a seaport city on the west coast of the United States and the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 684,451 residents as of 2015, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In July 2013, it was the major city in the United States. The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 100 miles south of the Canada–United States border, a major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, the settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named Seattle in 1852, after Chief Siahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Logging was Seattles first major industry, but by the late-19th century, growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed as a technology center beginning in the 1980s, in 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District, to the Central District, the jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock subgenre grunge, archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the people occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay, the first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest. In 1851, a party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party, members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28,1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon, after a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps. For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, david Swinson Doc Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Sealth of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name Seattle appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23,1853, in 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14,1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of managing the city

4.
Oklahoma City Thunder
–
The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Thunder competes in the National Basketball Association as a member of the leagues Western Conference Northwest Division, the team plays its home games at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Thunders NBA Development League affiliate is the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder is the only team in the major professional North American sports leagues based in the state of Oklahoma. The team was established as the Seattle SuperSonics, an expansion team that joined the NBA for the 1967–68 season. The SuperSonics moved in 2008 after a settlement was reached between the group led by Clay Bennett and lawmakers in Seattle, Washington following a lawsuit. In Seattle, the SuperSonics qualified for the NBA playoffs 22 times, won their division six times, in Oklahoma City, the Thunder qualified for their first playoff berth during the 2009–10 season. The Thunders previous incarnation, the Seattle SuperSonics, were formed in 1967, in their 41 seasons in Seattle, the SuperSonics compiled a 1745–1585 win–loss record in the regular season and went 107–110 in the playoffs. The franchises titles include three Western Conference championships and one NBA title in 1979, the sale of the SuperSonics and Storm was approved by NBA owners the following October. In 2007, Bennett announced that the franchise would move to Oklahoma City as soon as the lease with KeyArena expired. In June 2008, a lawsuit brought by the city of Seattle against Bennett due to his attempts to break the two years of the Sonics lease at KeyArena went to federal court. Nearly a month later, the two reached a settlement agreement. The terms awarded the city $45 million to get out of the lease at KeyArena. On September 3,2008, the name, logo. The name Thunder was chosen in reference to Oklahomas location in Tornado Alley and Oklahoma City as the home of the U. S. Armys 45th Infantry Division, the Thunder participated in the Orlando Pro Summer League featuring their second-year players, potential free agents and rookies. The players wore black and white jerseys reading OKC-NBA against an outline of a basketball. The Thunder played several games before the 2008–2009 regular season. The Thunder made their first appearance in Billings, Montana on October 8,2008 in an 88–82 preseason loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Thunder played their first Ford Center game on October 14 against the Los Angeles Clippers. In their regular-season home opener, the Thunder faced the Milwaukee Bucks, earl Watson scored the first points of the season with a layup

5.
Starbucks
–
Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. As of November 2016, it operates 23,768 locations worldwide, many stores sell pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and drinkware including mugs and tumblers, select Starbucks Evenings locations offer beer, wine, and appetizers. Starbucks-brand coffee, ice cream, and bottled cold coffee drinks are sold at grocery stores. Starbucks first became profitable in Seattle in the early 1980s, the first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo in 1996, overseas properties now constitute almost one-third of its stores. The company opened an average of two new locations daily between 1987 and 2007, on December 1,2016, Howard Schultz announced he would resign as CEO effective in April 2017 and will be replaced by Kevin Johnson. The company took the name of the mate in the book Moby-Dick, Starbuck, after considering Cargo House. Bowker recalls that Terry Heckler, with whom Bowker owned an advertising agency, the founders brainstormed a list of words beginning with st. Someone pulled out an old mining map of the Cascade Range and saw a mining town named Starbo, Bowker said, Moby-Dick didnt have anything to do with Starbucks directly, it was only coincidental that the sound seemed to make sense. The first Starbucks store was located in Seattle at 2000 Western Avenue from 1971–1976 and this cafe was later moved to 1912 Pike Place, never to be relocated again. During this time, the only sold roasted whole coffee beans. The only brewed coffee served in the store were free samples, during their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peets, then began buying directly from growers. In 1984, the owners of Starbucks, led by Jerry Baldwin. During the 1980s, total sales of coffee in the US were falling, by 1986, the company operated six stores in Seattle and had only just begun to sell espresso coffee. In 1987, the owners sold the Starbucks chain to former manager Howard Schultz. In the same year, Starbucks opened its first locations outside Seattle at Waterfront Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, by 1989,46 stores existed across the Northwest and Midwest and annually, Starbucks was roasting over 2,000,000 pounds of coffee. At the time of its public offering on the stock market in June 1992, Starbucks had 140 outlets, with a revenue of US$73.5 million. The companys market value was US$271 million by this time, the 12% portion of the company that was sold raised around US$25 million for the company, which facilitated a doubling of the number of stores over the next two years

6.
Puget Sound
–
Puget Sound /ˈpjuːdʒɪt/ is a sound along the northwestern coast of the U. S. state of Washington, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. Flow through Deception Pass is approximately equal to 2% of the tidal exchange between Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Puget Sound extends approximately 100 miles from Deception Pass in the north to Olympia and its average depth is 450 feet and its maximum depth, off Point Jefferson between Indianola and Kingston, is 930 feet. The depth of the basin, between the southern tip of Whidbey Island and Tacoma, Washington, is approximately 600 feet. Since 2009, the term Salish Sea has been established by the United States Board on Geographic Names as the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Sometimes the terms Puget Sound and Puget Sound and adjacent waters are used for not only Puget Sound proper but also for waters to the north, such as Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands region. The term Puget Sound is used not just for the body of water, major cities on the sound include Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Everett, Washington. Puget Sound is also the second largest estuary in the United States, in 1792 George Vancouver gave the name Pugets Sound to the waters south of the Tacoma Narrows, in honor of Peter Puget, a Huguenot lieutenant accompanying him on the Vancouver Expedition. This name later came to be used for the north of Tacoma Narrows as well. The USGS defines Puget Sound as all the south of three entrances from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The main entrance at Admiralty Inlet is defined as a line between Point Wilson on the Olympic Peninsula, and Point Partridge on Whidbey Island. The second entrance is at Deception Pass along a line from West Point on Whidbey Island, to Deception Island, the third entrance is at the south end of the Swinomish Channel, which connects Skagit Bay and Padilla Bay. Under this definition, Puget Sound includes the waters of Hood Canal, Admiralty Inlet, Possession Sound, Saratoga Passage and it does not include Bellingham Bay, Padilla Bay, the waters of the San Juan Islands or anything farther north. Another definition, given by NOAA, subdivides Puget Sound into five basins or regions, four of these correspond to areas within the USGS definition, but the fifth one, called Northern Puget Sound includes a large additional region. It is defined as bounded to the north by the boundary with Canada. Kruckeberg uses the term Puget Sound and adjacent waters, continental ice sheets have repeatedly advanced and retreated from the Puget Sound region. The most recent glacial period, called the Fraser Glaciation, had three phases, or stades. S. Since each new advance and retreat of ice erodes away much of the evidence of ice ages

7.
Women's National Basketball Association
–
The Womens National Basketball Association is a professional womens basketball league in the United States. It is currently composed of twelve teams, the league was founded on April 24,1996 as the womens counterpart to the National Basketball Association, and league play started in 1997. The regular season is played from June to September with the All Star game being played midway through the season in July, many WNBA teams have direct NBA counterparts and play in the same arena. The four aforementioned franchises, along with the Atlanta Dream and the Los Angeles Sparks, are all independently owned. The creation of the WNBA was officially approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 24,1996, and announced at a conference with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie. The new WNBA had to compete with the recently-formed American Basketball League, while not the first major womens professional basketball league in the United States, the WNBA is the only league to receive full backing of the NBA. The WNBA logo, Logo Woman, paralleled the NBA logo and was selected out of 50 different designs. On the heels of a gold medal run by the 1996 USA Basketball Womens National Team at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The first WNBA game featured the New York Liberty facing the Los Angeles Sparks in Los Angeles, the game was televised nationally in the United States on the NBC television network. Penny Toler scored the leagues first point, the WNBA centered its marketing campaign, dubbed We Got Next, around stars Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. In the leagues first season, Leslies Los Angeles Sparks underperformed, the WNBAs true star in 1997 was WNBA MVP Cynthia Cooper, Swoopes teammate on the Houston Comets. The Comets defeated Lobos New York Liberty in the first WNBA Championship game, the initial We Got Next advertisement ran before each WNBA season until it was replaced with the We Got Game campaign. Two teams were added in 1998 and two more in 1999, bringing the number of teams in the league up to twelve and we expect to keep growing the league. In 1999, the chief competition, the American Basketball League. When a lockout resulted in an abbreviated NBA season, the WNBA saw faltering TV viewership, on May 23,2000, the Houston Comets became the first WNBA team to be invited to the White House Rose Garden. Before this invitation, only mens sports teams had traveled to the White House, at the end of the 2000 season, the Houston Comets won their fourth championship, capturing every title since the leagues inception. Led by the Big Three of Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, and four-time Finals MVP Cynthia Cooper, under head coach Van Chancellor, the team posted a 98–24 record through their first four seasons. After 2000, Cooper retired from the league and the Comets dynasty came to an end, the top contender in the 2001 season was the Los Angeles Sparks

8.
Kansas City, Missouri
–
Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri and the sixth largest city in the Midwest. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the city had an population of 475,378 in 2015. It is the city of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west, on June 1,1850 the town of Kansas was incorporated, shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued and the name Kansas City was assigned to them soon thereafter. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, but portions spill into Clay, Cass, along with Independence, it serves as one of the two county seats for Jackson County. Major suburbs include the Missouri cities of Independence and Lees Summit and the Kansas cities of Overland Park, Olathe, and Kansas City. The city is composed of neighborhoods, including the River Market District in the north, the 18th and Vine District in the east. Kansas City is also known for its cuisine, its craft breweries, Kansas City, Missouri was officially incorporated as a town on June 1,1850, and as a city on March 28,1853. The territory straddling the border between Missouri and Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers was considered a place to build settlements. The Antioch Christian Church, Dr. James Compton House, the first documented European visitor to Kansas City was Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, who was also the first European to explore the lower Missouri River. Criticized for his response to the Native American attack on Fort Détroit, Bourgmont lived with a Native American wife in a village about 90 miles east near Brunswick, Missouri, where he illegally traded furs. In the documents, he describes the junction of the Grande Riv des Cansez and Missouri River, French cartographer Guillaume Delisle used the descriptions to make the areas first reasonably accurate map. The Spanish took over the region in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French continued their fur trade under Spanish license. After the 1804 Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark visited the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, in 1831, a group of Mormons from New York settled in what would become the city. They built the first school within Kansas Citys current boundaries, but were forced out by mob violence in 1833, in 1833 John McCoy established West Port along the Santa Fe Trail,3 miles away from the river. In 1834 McCoy established Westport Landing on a bend in the Missouri to serve as a point for West Port. Soon after, the Kansas Town Company, a group of investors, began to settle the area, in 1850, the landing area was incorporated as the Town of Kansas

9.
St. Louis
–
St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area

10.
Las Vegas
–
The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment and it is the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World and it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the worlds most visited tourist destinations. The citys tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century, population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85. 2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to a 2013 estimate, perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago, a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, the area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for the meadows, as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C, frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street is named after him, eleven years later members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward, the remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city,1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks and this year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935, in 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Currently known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the team called the Thunderbirds